Doctor Who: The Best Episodes From Each Modern Series

As the Doctor says: "taking a big space truck with a bunch of strangers across a diamond planet called Midnight? What could possibly go wrong?" Well, as the Tenth Doctor would say, everything goes right from a viewers' perspective.

There are plenty of brilliant episodes from series four: from Steven Moffat's de rigueur seasonal special (Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead) to Russell T Davies' epically spectacular The Stolen Earth/Journey's End. However it's Davies' less showy more stripped-back, stage show-style allegory that's more immersive.

While the knocking from the unknown entity is straight out of the Moffat playbook of simple psychological scares, it's the top form acting all round throughout which heightens the claustrophobic terror. Mechanic Claude's look of astonished wonder to sudden panic when he sees something dark running towards the shuttle. How many times have you rewatched/paused/zoomed in on that segment? So it begins.

Lesley Sharp is terrifyingly transfixing as the troubled Sky Silvestry - her look of sinister satisfaction after stealing the cleverest voice in the room, and then trying to manipulate the rest into murdering the Doctor. As the freaked out humans and the Doctor mention frequently: it's her eyes, those deep blue pools darting between one panicked person to the other. It sounds positively demonic when her voice perfectly synchronises to what the others are saying.

Sharp and David Tennant are an absorbing watch, with the Tenth Doctor’s Time Lord Victorious persona evincing itself here. Fat lot of good it does him here though, as the brave hostess heroically fulfils her duty by saving his life.